Per tradition, this year’s Pokémon Day stream delivered news on Pikachu and friends, with the expected anime and trading card updates. There were fresh game reveals, too. The first was Pokémon Champions, an upcoming mobile and Nintendo Switch title focused on competitive battling that appears to be a Pokémon Stadium successor. However, the most anticipated reveal was a closer look at Pokémon Legends: Z-A, the next major Pokémon RPG launching in late 2025 for the Nintendo Switch. The deep dive teased a game that embraces big changes to the familiar Pokémon formula—a necessity to prevent franchise stagnation.
A Legendary Pokémon Lineage
Pokémon Legends: Z-A has a lot to live up to. The Pokémon Legends series began in 2022 with Pokémon Legends: Arceus. In that game, you were transported to the Sinnoh region’s feudal past and encountered primitive Pokémon. The medieval setting gave the game a unique aesthetic reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, albeit with much lower-budget graphics and poor technical performance.
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Also like Breath of the Wild, Arceus rethought established gameplay conventions to great results. Stealthily hunting Pokémon in grassy fields brilliantly brought the fantasy to life. Battles gained new depth with different attack styles, such as strong attacks that inflict more damage or quick attacks with higher turn-order priority. Your trainer could move across the battlefield, giving the gameplay more action elements. Likewise, mounting and riding Pokémon offered a great sense of exploration.
The combat resembles an event in real physical space, not just a bunch of turn-based calculations like classic Pokémon titles.
Arceus was a Pokémon game that finally cared about what I cared about: mechanics and environments that encourage a sense of immersion and active participation. Developer Game Freak didn’t waste time and resources bringing over hundreds of classic creatures from prior games. Arceus felt fresh.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus continued the semi-open Wild Areas of Pokémon Sword and Shield. Subsequently, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet took many ideas from Arceus and expanded them into a full open world with more trainers to battle and goals to accomplish. But along with its myriad technical issues, the more traditional Scarlet and Violet didn’t fully embrace Arceus’ innovations. The upcoming Pokémon Legends: Z-A seems to finally push the gameplay forward, and this intriguing first look teases tweaks, changes, and evolutions never before seen in a Pokémon title.
What’s New in Pokémon Legends: Z-A?
Z-A takes place in Lumiose City, the Paris stand-in from Pokémon X and Y. Instead of wild jungles, the action occurs in a dense urban environment where humans and Pokémon live together. It appears most battles happen in designated zones, although you can catch creatures throughout the city. The reveal video showcases rooftop battles, implying verticality via the many tall buildings, which is a great use of the setting and precisely the kind of big change expected in a contemporary Pokémon game. Hopefully, the lone location helps Z-A run better than Arceus and Scarlet and Violet’s numerous, interconnected biomes without sacrificing exploration.
Based on what was shown, Z-A retains Arceus’ more engaging mechanics. You still sneak up on Pokémon to battle or capture them. If anything, the battle system looks even more radically redesigned. During fights, you must consider in real time where your monsters are positioned to stay in and out of attack range. Attacks look to employ a Xenoblade-esque cooldown system. The combat resembles an event in real physical space, not just a bunch of turn-based calculations like classic Pokémon titles. As in X and Y, Pokémon can also undergo dramatic Mega Evolutions to gain new forms with new abilities.
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The stream highlights new characters and hints at the game’s plot (Quasartico Inc. sure is an evil company name). I’m not in love with the starting lineup of Chikorita, Tepig, and Totodile, but at least my garbage bag favorite, Trubbish, is there. But there’s still more to learn. Hopefully, Game Freak will take its time to polish Z-A to perfection before its release later this year. The evolving series needs a strong foundation.
(Credit: Nintendo)
More to Come, More to Catch
If you need proof that people yearn for unrestricted innovation in Pokémon games, just look at the success of Palworld. That game did so well (reaching more than 30 million players) and delivered a Pokémon fantasy so potent that Nintendo sued its creators. More than any mainline Pokémon entries, Palworld resembled Pokémon Legends: Arceus—just with guns. Evolution is the future, and Pokemon Legends: Z-A is helping us get there.
After years of stiflingly conservative Game Freak design decisions, this Pokémon era had more intriguing experimentation than we expected. Pokémon Legends: Z-A looks like the largest leap yet—and hopefully not the last.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus Review: The Future of Pokémon?
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About Jordan Minor
Senior Analyst, Software
